classic perf rear gas tank

[SRVBLUES64]

well I bought my tank on ebay , installed it installed the bed, and it dont fit or work. One of the cross bars sits on top of the tank about 3 inches, so I dropped the tank and the bed sits flush, can anybody help me. I only took one pic of the tank I think so enough I hope Thanks

[brap999]

I installed a fuel cell in the same location, and had to move that bar back out of the way. You may have to do the same.

[Rich 5150 69]

If it were me, I would notch above the tank, then weld a plate at the underside of the sill to put the strength back into it... JMO

[Chevy Fleetside]

Originally Posted by Rich 5150 69

If it were me, I would notch above the tank, then weld a plate at the underside of the sill to put the strength back into it... JMO

That is what I am doing. You have to knotch the sill to fit over the tank.

[kieth]

Heres how we did it.....and it has plenty of strength. Kieth

Originally thought we were going to mount the tank between the frame rails, had to change that idea to make the tank bolt to the bottom of the frame flange (this means when everything is back together you can still get the tank out.
http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...87059293_R5ahq

then we added the tank straps, but they had to be modified also, the straps were attached to the rear crossmember permanently (bolted) then the slack is taken up by the crossmember in front of the tank

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...87060612_HdAHa

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...87060605_ZDKec


then we notched the bed crossmember (actually cut it off in 2 places and added a piece of flat bar to replace the removed section of bed crossmember.

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...005088_DrSmCmf

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...5_RPD5hVt-A-LB

then we added a frame to bed crossmember support angle iron to add support for the bed crossmember that we cut off...

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...003673_7qBM5tJ

We ended up having more room for the tank and the bolts thru the bed wood than we thought, if I was doing it again I would add a piece of 1" channel instead of the flatbar, it would have more strength.

to make this whole tank install process easier we welded the nuts to the frame flange to aid installation of the fuel tank.

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...478344_sr9cCz6

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...064834_DMrvpFh

then we had the issue of how to route the filler neck and the next series of pictures show what we did to simplify that whole operation. We cut off the filler neck and brazed the hole closed.

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...270029_44JXfxh

then we cut a new hole at the right rear of the tank and installed a 91 suburban filler neck that we cut down.....

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...270096_WfTFcBh

this allowed the filler neck to be straight in instead of having the angle, we left the vent on the opposite end of the tank open and later installed a one way vent that has a check valve in it in case of a roll over.

we centered the filler neck as best we could and cut out for the fuel tank door in the floor of the truck.

http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...270593_wmCF36s


Be a little more careful than we were, we almost did not get the filler neck centered but it still has enough room to work.......whewwww....


http://kieth.smugmug.com/Trucks/66-G...204975_sMtpxWj


In retrospect I think one should put the tank in place and then drill a hole with a small drill bit down from the top then through the fuel tank (one could keep a eye on the bit as it entered the wood and then penetrated the wood, then after making sure that the location is correct proceed on into the tank with the small bit, which would center the opening perfectly. Do not be afraid of the tank and the flange of the filler neck not being able to conform to each other, even if the tank has a formed flange the metal is soft enough to be brought up the the filler neck with a little friendly persuasion.

Call me if you have questions. Kieth 918-446-2245 we did this over a period of time so you might want to look through the entire build thread to see how we did everyting.